Lions and Cousins and Swimming Oh my!

It has been a busy few days in the Hutchins' household. Jesstine has been reaching a few milestones. If they aren't milestones, they are skills that stand out in our mind as things to remember. On Wednesday of this week, my Sister-in-law and nephews came up from Tulsa to spend a few days. We had a blast! Jesstine loved being around her cousins! Her and Ian have a special affectation for each other! She thinks Noah is funny too! The week was filled with a lot of joy for our little girl. She did a lot of swimming/water play! It started with her first swimming lesson on Tuesday and then we were in the water everyday since then except for Wednesday. It has been fun! We also discovered that she likes the swing! Luckily we have a playground in our housing development. The first time we tried it (a few months ago) she seemed overwhelmed. Now she giggles like crazy! Here is our week in pictures below! There are also a couple of videos. They were taken on my phone so the quality isn't great. I guess you gotta work with what you have right? Here you go:

Although this isn't much of a milestone, it is certainly a sign of things to come for our little girl. She is still crawling mostly on her belly, but having Charis around a couple of weekends ago was good exposure for her! She is beginning to pull herself up on a lot of things around the house!

This is something I was told she should be doing two months ago! I know it is different with every kid. She would attempt it earlier but it ended up looking more like a victory pose or something with her hands held together high above her head! Now we can say that she really claps! (Notice her waving to Aunt Jenni as she passes that way)

On Thursday when Jenni, Noah and Ian were here we went to the zoo! It is always a little dicey with kids this age. You never know what they are going to take an interest in or not. Jesstine is at this stage where everything in the animal kingdom is either a cat ("tat") or a dog ("daww"). The zoo was mostly made up of dogs for her (including this lion). I was able to get some great pictures of the lions! This was right after he finished taking his bath (I also have a picture of him with his tongue hanging out. Anakin would approve!)

Jesstine in her zoo finest! She was actually wearing a giraffe outfit Grandmom picked up for her before she was born. The hat is one of the WONDERFUL Gymboree hand me downs from the Hanson's. We really appreciate all of the clothes they have given us! This hat got a lot of use this week (notice it is in some later pictures).

Here is Jesstine's buddy Ian (the little boy not the Orangutan)! He is snuggling up to this hairy ape! We were amazed at how close the Orangutans and Gorillas came up to the glass. It gave us a great look and some great photo opportunities.

Here is Ian loving on Jesstine! Notice she doesn't mind a bit! She actually relishes the attention!

This is kind of an early birthday present for Jesstine from her Grandmom. Grandmom already has a big spring horse that she got for the boys last Christmas. She found this one online and couldn't pass it up! If you will look at an earlier post where I compare pictures of Jesstine and her Daddy, you will notice that he TOO had a horse like this as a little boy! I am hoping she will get some great use out of it! Compare the look on her face with that picture as well!

Here is only a snippet of the swimming that we have done this week. It is also my chance to brag. There were two other little babies at swimming lessons. Jesstine was the second oldest by mere weeks. She was probably the most advanced swimmer (such as it is at this age). The swimming instructor commented on how babies generally kick their legs together until about 10 months when they start kicking independently. Jesstine is so happy in the water! She is already kicking her legs independently. I have mentioned how she even sticks her face in with no cajoling! This week was no exception! Jenni taught us a way to put her under without her swallowing so much of the pool! Too bad you can't do that in these little pools. This was shortly before she swallowed some water and coughed so much she threw up in the pool! Poor girl! As you can tell she still had fun!

This is another toy that Grandmom got for Jesstine! Grandmom finds the coolest things! We were unsure about it and because it hooks up to the hose, it puts out cold water. She still had a blast as you can tell!

And finally the joy of swinging! She was so happy in that swing!



In this picture we discovered that she thought it was hilarious when she thought she was kicking us so hard we fell backwards. I used to do this with kids I babysat. They all think it is hilarious! I guess it is funny to think that someone is pretending you are hurting them and falling backwards. Or maybe it is the sound that comes as her feet make contact. In any case, if you can strain your ears enough to hear her above the wind, it is the cutest sound! My co-worker Terri is always looking for a new clip of a baby laughing really hard. Well here you go! (Again, sorry for the poor quality. It looks great until it uploads to another application. Then it gets blocky and garbled!)

Well, we hope you have all had a good week! Oh, and here is a shout out to our friends Tracy and Cheri! Congrats on the birth of little Olivia Faith! We are so happy for you. May God bless her with good health and a long life in her mommy and daddy's arms! (In case you don't remember, Tracy and Cheri have experienced two losses in the past two years. Olivia is their first child together to make it past the viability stage!)

May God bless all of you! Until next time when we post Jesstine's 10 month pictures!

In Him,
Lacie, Stephen and Jesstine Hutchins